Plan in Place for New Softball Fields

CANNONSBURG: A builder for Boyd County High School’s new softball field has been chosen and the school district will be lining up financing with an eye toward “substantial completion” by fall, Superintendent Brock Walter said.

The softball field will be the first part of what eventually will be the wholesale movement of the school’s athletic fields to the new high school that opened in 2013 on a hilltop campus across Ky. 180 from the old one.

The building project will include the field, a parking lot, restrooms and a concession stand. It also includes water and utility lines and grading of adjacent areas for future development into football and soccer fields, Walter said.

It will be built on the plateau facing the highway.

Rising Sun Construction of Lexington submitted the low bid of just under $1.6 million, which the school board OK’d Tuesday.

The district will borrow to build the field; bonds will be backed by the state from the School Facilities Construction Commission to the tune of about $1.1 million and the rest in district capital outlay funds.

The construction schedule will take into account the need to seed or sod the field to establish a playable grass surface by the following spring, with the target of playing the 2018 softball season there, Walter said.

The areas graded for future fields will be useful in the short term as practice fields, he said.

The softball field was chosen for development first because the current field on low ground beside a creek is prone to flooding.

It typically is underwater several times each year during the season and a recent Title IX audit resulted in a directive to get started on plans to move it, Walter said. That kick-started the process and the board decided to get the project done, he said.